The best food and cooking "read" is M.F.K. Fisher. Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher may have been the best American writer of any genre and, happily, wrote mostly of food, cooking, and life. And had an extraordinary life to back it up. If you happened to have noticed she wrote The Cooking of Provincial France for the Time-Life series, don't hold it against her. The editors gutted her prose of almost all that was interesting.

It is a compilation of several of her best foodie writings, and it will save you the trouble of reading just one of them and feeling compelled to hunt down the others. While not a "cookbook," some of the pieces contain a number of recipes.

thanks a lot, glc! songs of praise resound from all around for mfk fisher's writings and the art of eating. makes me wonder how i've manage to live so long without hearing of her before now. this book was written in 1954 (i think) and is said to contain interesting historical nuggets from fisher's life living in europe during wwii. i can't wait to get my hands on this book to read it--bertrand russell and gertrude stein are names linked with fisher, carelessly dropped like candy wrappers in the breeze....i found a copy for under five dollars on ebay, so psyched!!!

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee.

thanks a lot for your recommendation of this fine book, s.s. as soon a i find a reasonably priced copy, i'm buying it. it sounds like an intriguing read about the origins, interactions and uses of various foods around the world! or maybe i'll put mcgee on my christmas wish list....

thanks a lot, glc! songs of praise resound from all around for mfk fisher's writings and the art of eating. makes me wonder how i've manage to live so long without hearing of her before now. this book was written in 1954 (i think) and is said to contain interesting historical nuggets from fisher's life living in europe during wwii. i can't wait to get my hands on this book to read it--bertrand russell and gertrude stein are names linked with fisher, carelessly dropped like candy wrappers in the breeze....i found a copy for under five dollars on ebay, so psyched!!!

How to Cook A Wolf by MFK Fisher and the Alice B. Toklas cookbook are also interesting.

I think I've underestimated the number...I know I had 250 before I bought the ones at auction...and they take up a 3-shelf, 12-ft long shelf...not counting the 3 shelf 4 ft. shelf unit, or my lawyer's 3-shelf bookcase, another bookcase, and yet another bookcase, oh and 3 boxes in the closet that don't have a home, or the stack in the bedroom...and let's not start on the magazines!

I had a spreadsheet of the auction ones, but when that computer died, I lost the spreadsheet....maybe a project for January...I'm thinking it is time to cull some of them...but it is so hard to part with even one of them...